Colourful characters of Holmdale

THE village of Holmbury St Mary has had some interesting residents over the years. Not least at the house called Holmdale. Philip Gorton, a professional researcher who specialises in the history of buildings, has traced two of its former occupants.

THE village of Holmbury St Mary has had some interesting residents over the years. Not least at the house called Holmdale. Philip Gorton, a professional researcher who specialises in the history of buildings, has traced two of its former occupants.

During the height of Victoria’s reign, Holmbury St Mary near Dorking became the home of some of the very richest people in the Empire.

The opening in 1849 of the railway line from Guildford to Redhill brought this previously remote and secluded area within easy travelling distance of the capital – just so long as you did not have to be in London too early in the morning!

The area was “discovered” by the Hon Frederick Leveson-Gower who built himself a large country house there in 1860. Visiting friends, rather taken with the place, followed suit and within 20 years or so there were another 10 large houses with extensive gardens hidden among the trees, together with the more humble homes of the workers and tradesmen who serviced them.

It was a millionaires’ retreat: the new mansions were owned by, among others, the heads of the Castle Shipping Line, Doulton’s Lambeth and Wedgewood potteries, Stephen’s Inks, Guinness, Brooke Bond Tea and by Edwin Waterhouse, founder and senior partner of accountancy firm Price-Waterhouse.

Included among these houses is Holmdale, a fine Gothic-style mansion that has been the home of some colourful characters: an architect, a diamond prospector and, during the 1940s, Thomas Catto, the Governor of the Bank of England. In 1872, George Edmund Street visited Holmbury St Mary. He was a successful architect who specialised in ecclesiastical buildings and, in an era of church restoration and of burgeoning cities that required new churches, Street worked himself hard.

It was his wife, Mariquita, who persuaded him that they needed a house in the country where he could escape from the bustle of his busy practice.

It was not to be: as an architect he did the job himself, adding the design of his new home to his long list of work to be done. Sadly, Mariquita died in 1874 before the house could be finished and this is, perhaps, why the right-hand wing was not built until many years later. After a few years, Street married again but, almost unbelievably, his new bride, Jessie, contracted an illness on their honeymoon and she died after just eight weeks of marriage.

Street reacted by burying himself in his work, including the construction of a church for the newly formed parish of Holmbury St Mary.

But work was to be his undoing for, in 1881, he suffered a stroke walking home from Gomshall railway station and died a few days later aged just 57 years.

His family planned a quiet burial but, such was his standing, he was buried at Westminster Abbey where he was laid alongside two other great men of his profession, Sir Gilbert Scott and Sir Charles Barry.

The house was rented out after his death and it was not until the 1890s that it became owner-occupied once more.

Henry Barlow Webb retired at the age of 66 and made his home at Holmdale with his wife and three daughters. However, his early life as a diamond pioneer would have been considerably different from his later comfortable circumstances at Holmbury St Mary. In 1867 diamonds were discovered in South Africa in the area around what was to become Kimberley. Prospectors rushed to the area from all over the world and by 1870 there were 10,000 men digging for diamonds. A few years later there were 50,000 people living in tents in an area about three miles in diameter. An evocative contemporary account shows that it was a colourful place:

“Through the straggling purlieu’s of the place we trot with crack of whip and warning shout. The roadway swarms with naked kaffir and brawny white men.

“Dressed in corduroy or shoddy, high-booted, bare as to arms and breast, with beard of any length upon their chins, girt with a butcher’s knife on bolt of leather – one could not readily believe that among these bronzed fellows might be found creditable representatives of every profession.

“A din of shouts and laughter fills the air. We pass large drinking shops full of people; negroes go by in merry gangs. One stands amazed at such a crush of buildings, such a busy, noisy host.”

In this dust-blown shantytown was founded the fortune of Mr Henry Barlow Webb. He had a share in a farm on which diamonds had been found and it was soon seething with diggers who were pegging claims and working the land.

Webb tried to force them to leave but he had a revolt on his hands.

The diamond hunters wanted the land to be declared public diggings but Webb was a tough man who was not easily daunted. A contemporary account describes an event that took place at the farm:

“Mr Webb and two or three staunch friends struggled through the mob, amid curses and threats. They attempted to plead for some small grace

“Active measures were taken at the greatest personal risk. The upholders of justice drew out the pegs immediately surrounding the house. One huge fellow swore he would drive his pick through Mr Webb’s foot if he dared obliterate his claim mark.

“Three times the line was made and three times it was gallantly smoothed out.

“They threatened to hang Mr Webb and his friends on the Bultfontein tree.”

As the years went on, life in Kimberley settled down and Webb became a stalwart of town life.

He had premises in the town and he oversaw the extraction of diamonds from his syndicate’s mine. In the 1890s, De Beers bought his company and Webb was able to retire as an extremely rich man. His new life in Holmbury St Mary would have been extremely comfortable but it must have seemed very much quieter!

Philip Gorton was commissioned to research the history of Holmdale by its current owners. He can be contacted on 01483 420763 or house.history@virgin.net